Remkes, Johann (1714-1770)

Johann Remkes, the last lay preacher of the Krefeld Mennonite congregation, was born 16 March 1714, and was ordained to the min­istry on 17 October 1754, by Winand Wynands (b. 1702, preacher 1727-77). On 13 June 1769, Remkes as preacher and Heinrich van der Leyen as deacon, both aged men, wrote an illuminating let­ter to the Lam en Toren congregation of Amster­dam asking for ministerial help. The letter gives much interesting information on the Krefeld congregation (see a long excerpt, Mennonitisches LexikonIII, 647). Remkes died 3 January 1770. The first educated minister was then called in 1770; it was not de Vries, but Wopko Molenaar and Zino van Abbema.